Air Force 'forward' in terrorism war
If you look out the window from your airliner's passenger seat and see a U.S. Air Force jet fighter, it's not a feel-good moment, says the Air Force general in charge of defending the continental United States.
( By KEVIN HOWE, Monterey (Calif.) Herald, 02/04/2004 03:01 AM PST)

Mom: 'I need her home'
FBI joins national search for abducted Sarasota girl
Carlie Brucia's mother broke down in a tearful plea to her daughter and her daughter's abductor. If you have information about this case, call 941-861-5800 or 1-888-356-4774.
( BRIAN HAAS, Bradenton (Fla.) Herald, 02/04/2004 12:01 AM PST)

Florida bill designed to trim suits over fast food
To avoid the super-sized problem of silly lawsuits, a House committee Tuesday passed a bill prohibiting overweight people from suing fast-food and other restaurants for serving meals that made them fat.
( BY MARC CAPUTO, Miami Herald, 02/04/2004 12:01 AM PST)

Kerry wins big; Lieberman out
John Kerry won five of seven states, strengthening his claim to the Democratic nomination. But John Edwards took South Carolina and Wesley Clark narrowly won Oklahoma.
( By JAMES KUHNHENN and STEVE KRASKE, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 02/03/2004 06:31 PM PST)

Washburn University sculpture leads to reprisals
Wichita Catholic high schools are no longer welcoming Washburn University admissions officers on their campuses because of a controversial sculpture near the university's student union.
( BY KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH, The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, 02/03/2004 11:01 PM PST)

Witness: Stewart got tip to sell ImClone stock
The Merrill Lynch assistant who is the government's star witness in the Martha Stewart case testified Tuesday that his boss ordered him to pass along a stock tip to Stewart.
( By MIRIAM HILL, Philadelphia Inquirer, 02/03/2004 05:04 PM PST)

Ricin scare reveals limits of USPS' system
The U.S. Postal Service is installing a costly new biohazard-detection system, but as now configured the system would not have detected the ricin that turned up Monday in a Senate office building.
( By STEVE GOLDSTEIN, Philadelphia Inquirer, 02/03/2004 04:43 PM PST)

No illness found in Senate ricin scare
A jittery Senate faced its second attack with a deadly toxin in 28 months on Tuesday, this time in the form of ricin powder sent to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Another letter containing ricin and bound for the White House had been intercepted in November, a law enforcement official disclosed.
( By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press, 02/03/2004 03:52 PM PST)

Government to Begin Arming Cargo Pilots
The government said Tuesday that it will begin recruiting cargo pilots to carry guns in the cockpit for the first time, extending to them a right enjoyed by passenger pilots for almost a year.
( LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press, 02/03/2004 03:04 PM PST)

Ricin tests
Some of the tests used on the powder found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office:
( Associated Press, 02/03/2004 02:07 PM PST)

Online game illustrates blurred the line
One player is a University of Michigan professor. The other is a teenager from Florida. Separated by thousands of miles, their lives are colliding in a very public way on the Internet, inside a role-playing game that features sex, crime, greed and the struggles of daily life.
( By JIM SCHAEFER, Detroit Free Press, 02/03/2004 01:32 PM PST)

Bush's marriage initiative overlooks causes of poverty
The way Leo Godzich sees it, the billions Washington channels into Medicaid, food stamps, public housing and temporary assistance for single-parent-families are nothing but an "expensive ambulance."
( By JOHN AUSTIN, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 02/03/2004 01:22 PM PST)

Homocysteine level eyed in stroke study
A simple and seemingly commonsense strategy for lowering the risk of recurring strokes failed to work in a study of nearly 3,700 patients.
( By LINDSEY TANNER, Associated Press, 02/03/2004 01:14 PM PST)

Geragos raises eyebrows trying to juggle trials
Faster than Scott Peterson can be moved from Modesto to the Redwood City jail, more powerful than Michael Jackson's bodyguards, able to juggle the two highest-profile criminal cases in the country at once - it's Mark Geragos! (Rhymes with asparagus.)
( By JULIA PRODIS SULEK, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.), 02/03/2004 01:14 PM PST)

Protein may have link to colon cancer
High blood levels of a protein linked to heart attacks might also be an early warning sign of colon cancer, a study found.
( By LINDSEY TANNER, Associated Press, 02/03/2004 01:13 PM PST)

Neurobiological revolution will bring advances
There's a revolution coming that will broadside us if we're not careful. It's a scientific revolution - one more sweeping than the Era of the Genome in which we now bask.
( By JOHN TIMPANE, Philadelphia Inquirer, 02/03/2004 12:50 PM PST)

Park ranger takes a new look at Valley Forge winter
It was winter, 1777. Food was sometimes in short supply and there wasn't enough clothing to go around when George Washington led his army into Valley Forge.
( By SANDY BAUERS and DAN HARDY, Philadelphia Inquirer, 02/03/2004 12:12 PM PST)

Police Search for Okla. Bombing Video
The possibility that a video exists showing the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building led to a search of a home in Virginia, but the man whose residence was searched said no such video was found.
( Associated Press, 02/03/2004 10:05 AM PST)

NASA rover takes close look at Mars soil
NASA's Opportunity took the first microscopic photographs on Mars of soil that scientists believe could contain evidence the now-dry planet once was a wetter world capable of sustaining life.
( By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press, 02/03/2004 09:13 AM PST)